Above is a video that we just recently released on News Friends, and for the past week and a half I have been ruminating the thought of doing a write up about it.  There’s a story about this video that’s worth mentioning, especially in the context of culture.Christy Clark, put herself into a corner when she decreed Yoga day on the Burrard bridge, crotch chopping her way to the podium and middle fingers thrusting into the air. She hoped to have a cute day where everyone can praise the sun god at the expense of Vancouver.

June 21st is apparently international yoga day, thanks to the UN so it’s her prerogative if she wants to do something.

She should have figured out it was going to be a messy situation from the beginning.  But people really wouldn’t have batted an eye if the Yoga was taking place on a beach or a park.

Shutting down something like a bridge indicates that it is more important to her than anything else happening that day. Summer Solstice, Father’s Day, Car Free Day (apparently) and even National Aboriginal Day.

Here’s the bit that I’m going to talk about. I can’t really speak for everyone on the matter, because most of the twitter twatter was only the shutting down of the bridge. But as a Canadian, it seemed incredibly baffling to me, that Clarks priority was for yoga without barely any mention about Aboriginal day.

News Friends, while joke-y, has a method to the madness when we make these things. There is an actual message to them no matter how subtle or blatant they may be. (At least when I edit them together.) We actually spent a fair amount of time pondering how to tackle the subject.

How ever we were going to do it, we really wanted to beat it into Clark’s head that it was aboriginal day. So we hoped to god that the bridge yoga, now known as Karma-geddon, so we could do a piece invading the inflated auras of all these yogis speaking to them strictly as though they were there for Aboriginal Day only.

But then the situation evolves. Sponsors and Clark pull out due to the amount of backlash. And we can’t make the cheeky-monkey video that we wanted to make.

But then, Sara Rabey and I went to this vigil honouring First Nations people that survived the Residential Schools from years ago. And despite our funning around, it became a very important piece to put together.

Because this is the problem:

Yoga is not a part of Canadian culture, and it really cannot be treated as such. Sure it’s a fun way to exercise but it doesn’t mean the same to Canada as it does to India. In our culture, we take advantage of a spiritual thing such as that and market it to people. Which is why things like Lululemon and Yyoga are in any kind of financial state to sponsor Christy Clark for any reason.

National Aboriginal Day should mean a lot more to Canadians, because of the storied history we have with First Nations people. I see that importance in most of Canada, but living in Vancouver it seems like that culture is largely ignored.

Maybe it’s a Vancouver thing. There’s so many different nationalities that you’d consider it to be a giant melting pot of culture, but all the ingredient do not seem to blend at all. It wants to be Hollywood, it wants to be China, it wants to be India, Portland and Silicon Valley.

Because of all these things, Vancouver doesn’t have a culture because it comes off as a City that wants to be anything but Canadian. If Christy Clark were to have Aboriginal Day on a bridge it would have played out differently. Granted, there may still be haters over the idea of closing a bridge, but it would have been for a much better cause than a Downward Dog.

I’m aware that I’m probably rambling at this point, but it’s something I’ve wanted to share. I hope the video is something you share as well.